Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 24

A Psalm of David.

¹ The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness of it, the world and they who dwell in it.^(A)

² For He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the currents and the rivers.

³ Who shall go up into the mountain of the Lord? Or who shall stand in His Holy Place?

⁴ He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted himself up to falsehood or to what is false, nor sworn deceitfully.^(B)

⁵ He shall receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

⁶ This is the generation [description] of those who seek Him [who inquire of and for Him and of necessity require Him], who seek Your face, [O God of] Jacob. Selah [pause, and think of that]!^(C)

⁷ Lift up your heads, O you gates; and be lifted up, you age-abiding doors, that the King of glory may come in.

⁸ Who is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.

⁹ Lift up your heads, O you gates; yes, lift them up, you age-abiding doors, that the King of glory may come in.

¹⁰ Who is [He then] this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory. Selah [pause, and think of that]!

¹⁸ As I live, says the King, Whose name is the Lord of hosts, surely like Tabor among the mountains and like Carmel by the sea, so shall he [the king of Babylon, standing out above other rulers] come.

¹⁹ O you daughter who dwells in Egypt and you who dwell with her, furnish yourselves [with all you will need] to go into exile, for Memphis will be waste, desolate, and burned up, without inhabitant.

²⁰ Egypt is a very fair heifer [like Apis the bull-god, to which the country is, so to speak, espoused], but destruction [a gadfly] is coming—out of the north it is coming [against her]!

²¹ Also her hired troops in the midst of her are like fatted calves [in the stall], for they also are turned back and are fleeing together; they do not stand, because the day of their calamity is coming upon them, the time of their visitation (their inspection and punishment).

²² The sound [of Egypt fleeing from the enemy] is like the rustling of an escaping serpent, for her foes advance with a mighty army and come against her with axes, like those who fell trees and cut wood.

²³ They shall cut down her forest, says the Lord, though it is impenetrable, because they [the invading army] are more numerous than locusts and cannot be counted.

²⁴ The Daughter of Egypt shall be disgraced; she shall be delivered into the hands of the people of the north [the Chaldeans].

²⁵ The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, says: Behold, I will visit punishment upon Amon [the chief god of the sacred city, the capital of Upper Egypt] of No or Thebes, and upon Pharaoh and Egypt, with her gods and her kings—even Pharaoh and all those [Jews and others] who put their trust in [Pharaoh as a support against Babylon].

²⁶ And I will deliver them into the hands of those who seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hands of his servants. Afterward [Egypt] will be ^[a]inhabited as in the days of old, says the Lord.

²⁷ But fear not, O My servant Jacob, and be not dismayed, O Israel. For behold, I will save you from afar, and your offspring from the land of their exile; and Jacob will return and be quiet and at ease, and none will make him afraid.

²⁸ Fear not, O Jacob My servant, says the Lord, for I am with you. For I will make a full and complete end of all the nations to which I have driven you; yet I will not make a full end of you. But I will chasten and correct you in just measure, and I will not hold you guiltless by any means or leave you unpunished.

⁵ And He Who is seated on the throne said, See! I make all things new. Also He said, Record this, for these sayings are faithful (accurate, incorruptible, and trustworthy) and true (genuine).^(A)

⁶ And He [further] said to me, It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I [Myself] will give water without price from the fountain (springs) of the water of Life.^(B)

⁷ He who is victorious shall inherit all these things, and I will be God to him and he shall be My son.

⁸ But as for the cowards and the ignoble and the contemptible and the cravenly lacking in courage and the cowardly submissive, and as for the unbelieving and faithless, and as for the depraved and defiled with abominations, and as for murderers and the lewd and adulterous and the practicers of magic arts and the idolaters (those who give supreme devotion to anyone or anything other than God) and all liars (those who knowingly convey untruth by word or deed)—[all of these shall have] their part in the lake that blazes with fire and brimstone. This is the second death.^(C)

⁹ Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven final plagues (afflictions, calamities) came and spoke to me. He said, Come with me! I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.

¹⁰ Then in the Spirit He conveyed me away to a vast and lofty mountain and exhibited to me the holy (hallowed, consecrated) city of Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God,^(D)

¹¹ Clothed in God’s glory [in all its splendor and radiance]. The luster of it resembled a rare and most precious jewel, like jasper, shining clear as crystal.

¹² It had a massive and high wall with twelve [large] gates, and at the gates [there were stationed] twelve angels, and [on the gates] the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were written:^(E)

¹³ On the east side three gates, on the north side three gates, on the south side three gates, and on the west side three gates.

¹⁴ And the wall of the city had twelve foundation [stones], and on them the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

¹⁵ And he who spoke to me had a golden measuring reed (rod) to measure the city and its gates and its wall.^(F)

¹⁶ The city lies in a square, its length being the same as its width. And he measured the city with his reed—12,000 stadia (about 1,500 miles); its length and width and height are the same.

¹⁷ He measured its wall also—144 cubits (about 72 yards) by a man’s measure [^[a]of a cubit from his elbow to his third fingertip], which is [the measure] of the angel.

¹⁸ The wall was built of jasper, while the city [itself was of] pure gold, clear and transparent like glass.

¹⁹ The foundation [stones] of the wall of the city were ornamented with all of the precious stones. The first foundation [stone] was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony (or white agate), the fourth emerald,^(G)

²⁰ The fifth onyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst.

²¹ And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each separate gate being built of one solid pearl. And the main street (the broadway) of the city was of gold as pure and translucent as glass.

²² I saw no temple in the city, for the Lord God Omnipotent [Himself] and the Lamb [Himself] are its temple.

²³ And the city has no need of the sun nor of the moon to give light to it, for the splendor and radiance (glory) of God illuminate it, and the Lamb is its lamp.^(H)

²⁴ The nations shall walk by its light and the rulers and leaders of the earth shall bring into it their glory.

²⁵ And its gates shall never be closed by day, and there shall be no night there.^(I)

²⁶ They shall bring the glory (the splendor and majesty) and the honor of the nations into it.

²⁷ But nothing that defiles or profanes or is ^[b]unwashed shall ever enter it, nor anyone who commits abominations (unclean, detestable, morally repugnant things) or practices falsehood, but only those whose names are recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life.